A Simple Cost Justification for Self-Service

Analytics
Increasingly, self-service permeates many aspects of our lives. Self-service
gas stations and self-service banking (in the form of ATMs) have become
commonplace over the last 60 years. More recently, self-service airline
check-in has found rapid adoption. In these cases, the consumer benefits
from faster service and greater convenience, while the provider is able to
cut the cost of service delivery. The same is true for self-service analytics
(see sidebar definition). This Analyst Insight quantifies the savings in internal
IT support costs that can be achieved while simultaneously improving the
ability of business managers to find timely information. Internal support
accounts for 68% of the total cost of a business intelligence solution (on
average), so self-service analytics should be a goal for many companies.

February 2013

Analyst Insight
Aberdeens Insights provide the
analyst's perspective on the
research as drawn from an
aggregated view of research
surveys, interviews, and
data analysis

Self-Service BI Reduces Internal IT Support Costs

Expenditure on BI software licenses and related hardware is easy to
quantify. As a result, these costs are usually the main focus when
organizations consider the total cost of their analytics solutions. On the
other hand, the cost of IT staff to implement and support a business
intelligence solution is seldom tracked as rigorously. However, Aberdeen's
research shows that organizations that deliver analytics using a self-service
approach spend far less on internal IT support when compared to
organizations that forgo self-service (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Self-Service Delivers 60% Lower Support Cost per User

$1,106

Internal support costs, n=199

$1,200

$800

Survey Definition
Data for this research was
drawn from Aberdeen's April
2012 survey into agile business
intelligence. Organizations
were judged to have a selfservice approach to BI when
business managers had both:
The ability to tailor reports
and dashboards to their
particular needs without
help from IT.
The ability to drill-down to
detailed information from
summary reports, charts, or
dashboards

$652

Based on these criteria, 74

survey respondents currently
use a self-service approach to
business intelligence, while 125
survey respondents do not.

$400

$0
Self-service

No self-service
Source: Aberdeen Group, April 2012

This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies provide for objective fact-based research and
represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc.
and may not be reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by Aberdeen Group, Inc.

A Simple Cost Justification for Self-Service Analytics

Page 2

As Figure 1 shows, companies that have a self-service philosophy when it

comes to BI spend 41% less on IT support per BI user when compared to
those firms that do not. This much lower cost for providing skilled IT
support isn't magic. It's a simple shift of responsibilities.
Strong BI implementations depend on a successful collaboration between
business users and skilled IT personnel. Between these two parties, the
balance of responsibilities exactly who does what can vary. With
some implementations the business community will simply define the
information they need to see and how they need to see it. Skilled IT staff
will then be primarily responsible for implementing the solution, in addition
to modifying and enhancing it as time goes by. In this case, the ongoing
involvement of business users is pretty minimal. Generally, it amounts to
submitting enhancements requests and undertaking quality assurance (QA)
when enhancements are completed.
That approach presents a big challenge: When business managers need to
see new information, or simply different views of existing information, they
are totally dependent on skilled IT staff to provide those enhancements for
them. However, Aberdeen's March 2011 agile BI survey found that IT
organizations have an average of 143 days of BI related project work
outstanding. As a result, modification can often take longer to achieve than
business managers are willing or able to wait because of the urgent nature
of their decisions.
Happily, a self-service philosophy to analytics also improves the odds that
business users can find the information they need when they need it.
Table 1: Self-Service Provides More Effective Information Access
Self-service

No self-service

Percentage of respondents
needing information within
the hour

46%

28%

Frequency of finding
information in the time
required

85%

69%
n=199
Source: Aberdeen Group, April 2012

As Table 1 shows, self-service BI users are 23% more likely to find timely
information to support their decisions. This is true despite having more
demanding information needs. (Forty-six percent (46%) of managers with
self-service analytics need information within one hour of business events
occurring, compared to just 28% at other organizations).

The Users Perspective on Self-Service

Calculating Support Costs

On average, internal BI
implementation and
maintenance account for 68%
of the total annual cost of a BI
solution. The average cost of
internal BI implementation and
maintenance was calculated
using the following data:
Average number of full-time
equivalents (FTEs)
responsible for the
implementation of analytics
reported in Aberdeen's
survey
Average number of full-time
equivalents (FTEs)
responsible for the ongoing
maintenance of analytics
reported in Aberdeen's
survey
Average annual cost of
$150,000 for a skilled IT FTE
to implement or support
analytics (Aberdeen's
estimate)
Average number of analytics
users derived from
Aberdeen's survey
The data recorded in
Aberdeen's survey for these
factors was:
Self-service: 9.5 FTEs
implementing BI, 10.9 FTEs
maintaining BI, total
estimated average support
costs of $3.06m for an
average of 4,689 BI users
No self-service: 13.6 FTEs
implementing BI, 11.2 FTEs
maintaining BI, total
estimated average support
costs of $3.73m, for an
average of 3,372 BI users

Self-service provides freedom for business users to analyze and manipulate

data directly without help from IT. Managers are often called on to react
2013 Aberdeen Group.
www.aberdeen.com

Telephone: 617 854 5200

Fax: 617 723 7897

A Simple Cost Justification for Self-Service Analytics

Page 3

rapidly to unexpected events, or a changing business environment. Because

of this, BI solutions need to adapt and change to facilitate fresh insight, often
at short notice. And, as noted earlier, it is often not possible for that
change to be delivered in a timely way by a corporate IT team. Self-service
BI provides a way for business users to interact with and explore data to
answer questions for themselves, understanding cause-and-effect
relationships so that they can take timely action. For example, imagine a call
center manager has a dashboard that includes a number of high level KPIs.
Further, imagine that one of those KPIs indicates a higher than expected
daily call volume. The ability to move seamlessly from the summarized
information in that KPI to more detailed data can help the manager
investigate and quickly understand what has occurred and how to fix it.
However, a self-service approach places a greater responsibility on business
users to get involved, hands-on, in implementing and maintaining the
solution. For example, business users may assume the task of configuring
the solution to meet their individual needs. This may be as simple as
changing the colors or layout on a dashboard. On the other hand, users
may be empowered to choose the key performance indicators (KPIs) that
they wish to see on a dashboard and apply appropriate filters to the data.
While this may sound like a burden, there are significant benefits. BI users
can tailor their own personal solution so that the exact information they
need to see is presented to them exactly how they want to see it. In
practice, analytics users within the same business function may need to see
different views of the same data. For example, a regional vice president of
sales will want to see a higher level of information than an individual account
manager. Even two accounts managers may prefer to see different
information on a dashboard, or set different thresholds for when they will
be alerted to potential problems. When the IT organization has such a
backlog of work, it makes perfect sense for end users to take care of such
details themselves, whenever possible. Most likely, such users will also feel a
greater sense of commitment to success of the BI project if they take
ownership of this part.
Notably, this approach also helps new BI projects to be completed faster.
Organizations that use a self-service approach complete comparable new
projects 77% faster than those that do not. Shifting responsibility for simple
tasks in analytics projects such as configuration of the final presentation
can help the IT department to focus on more strategic areas and
improve overall productivity.

Key Takeaways and Recommendations

On the face of it, BI (or analytics) meets the basic win-win requirements for
successful self-service. To wit, analytic consumers benefit from superior
service, while corporate IT gets to reduce the cost of serving those users.
However, the majority of organizations in Aberdeen's survey have not yet
implemented self-service BI as defined in this Analyst Insight. Aberdeen
recommends companies consider the following:
2013 Aberdeen Group.
www.aberdeen.com

BI Styles
BI solutions can be classified into
3 broad types:
Managed reporting
Typically creates and delivers
lists, or cross-tab style reports.
Usually centralized and
delivered by corporate IT,
often only static views of data
are available. Advanced
solutions allow some
interaction, such as filters or
sorting.
Interactive dashboards
Allow several metrics to be
displayed on a single screen.
Often highly visual with charts
and dials, dashboards
frequently allow users to
interact with information and
"drill-down" to detailed data
from summarized information.
Corporate IT is normally
heavily involved in dashboard
projects.
Visual data discovery A
rich, highly interactive, visual
tool is provided to business
users to allow them to
manipulate and explore
information freely in (near)
real-time. Although corporate
IT provides the IT
infrastructure and data,
business managers and analysts
create visualizations
independently.

Telephone: 617 854 5200

Fax: 617 723 7897

A Simple Cost Justification for Self-Service Analytics

Page 4

Self-service cuts the cost of internal support. Organizations

that have implemented self-service BI spend 41% less on IT support
per user compared to those firms that have not. This is possible by
shifting responsibility for some simple "last-mile" customization of
the solution from skilled IT staff to business users. In addition,
business managers are empowered and encouraged to move
beyond static views of data to interactive exploration and
manipulation.

Self-service improves the ability to access timely

information. This is a natural consequence of providing BI users
with the means to be more "hands-on" with information. Managers
that are able to manipulate information directly, in a self-service
fashion, are 23% more likely to find the information they need in the
timeframe that they need it.

The right tools help self-service happen. Companies that have

adopted self-service BI still used managed reporting (see sidebar
definition) to provide basic management information 67% of BI
users have access to this type of tool. But, interactive tools
comprise a large part of their analytics solution portfolio too. Sixtysix percent (66%) of business users have access to interactive
dashboards, while 46% have access to visual data discovery tools.
Organizations, should consider the mix of tools they make available
to users in order to facility self-service.

Cultural changes may be necessary. Providing appropriate

software tools is only part of the story. For self-service analytics to
take hold and provide value to the business, organizational culture
may also need to be addressed. Unless managers are also
empowered to act autonomously on the insights they gain from
working hands-on with information, gains are likely to be limited. In
addition, it is likely that appropriate training and intensive support is
provided at least initially to ensure that business managers are
comfortable manipulating and analyzing data in ways that they may
never have done before. However, with a suitably supportive
culture in place, self-service analytics can thrive, fostering a "culture
of curiosity" than can help to drive business performance to new
heights.

As IT support accounts for 68% of the average total cost of a BI solution,

evolving towards a self-service approach to analytics is one of the most
important steps organizations can take to reduce the total cost of
ownership of their implementations.
For more information on this or other research topics, please visit
www.aberdeen.com

2013 Aberdeen Group.

www.aberdeen.com

Telephone: 617 854 5200

Fax: 617 723 7897

A Simple Cost Justification for Self-Service Analytics

Page 5

Related Research
Culture, Collaboration and Coordination:
Driving High Performance with EPM;
January 2013
Packaged Analytics: The Gift that Keeps
on Giving; December 2012
BI Without Tears: Analytics without
Coding; November 2012
The Grinning CFO: How to Get a Return
on BI Projects in Less Than 4 Months;
October 2012
Operational Intelligence: Exorcising the
Devil in the Details; October 2012
Real-Time Data Integration: Driving Near
Real-Time Analytics; September 2012

Pervasive Cloud BI: Analyst, Advocate,

Problem-Solver - All in One; September
2012
Agile or Fragile? Your Analytics, Your
Choice; July 2012
Managing the TCO of BI: The Path to ROI
is Paved with Adoption; May 2012
High Performance Organizations
Empower Employees with Real-Time
Mobile Analytics; April 2012
Picture this: Self-Service BI through Data
Discovery & Visualization; March 2012
SaaS BI: The Compelling Economics of
Cloud-based Analytics; February 2012

Author: David White, Senior Research Analyst, Business Intelligence,

(david.white@aberdeen.com);
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This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies
provide for objective fact-based research and represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless
otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc. and may not be
reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by
Aberdeen Group, Inc. (2013a)

2013 Aberdeen Group.

www.aberdeen.com

Telephone: 617 854 5200

Fax: 617 723 7897